Friday, April 30, 2010

Vin Santo wishes to thank all our loyal customers for their years of patronage! Vin Santo is looking forward to new management and an awesome menu with fantastic dishes! Our final dinner service before the switch will be May 8th, new management's projected debut for May 22nd.

The rules for wine pairing have relaxed a bit, but the fact remains that certain flavors of food and wine mix better together than others.

While it isn't unheard of to have a white wine with meat or a red wine with fish or seafood, you don't want to serve a very strong tasting wine with a delicate entree, or the other way around.

The wine and the food should complement each other, not battle against each other. One way to decide is to remember what some experts recommend, "Simple wines with complex foods...complex wines with simple foods."

Friday, April 9, 2010

Believe it or not, the taste of a wine changes when you drink the wine out of different types of glasses.

Three aspects of a glass are important: its size, its shape, and the thickness of the glass.

Wine glasses must be plain and transparent, so that you can appreciate the wine’s color, and made of glass or crystal.

Let's keep things simple with three glass options: glasses for red wine, for white wine and for sparkling wine

Red wine

Red wine glasses are wider, with a very large bowl, since red wine needs to be swirled around to come in contact with the oxygen, and benefit from a larger area of contact with the air.

Glasses for red wines should hold a minimum of 12 ounces; many of the best glasses have capacities ranging from 16 to 24 ounces, or more.

Fun Fact!**As oxygen from the air chemically interacts with the wine, flavor and aroma are subtly altered. This process of oxidization is generally more compatible with red wines, whose complex flavors are smoothed out after being exposed to air.

White Wine

White wine glasses are tulip shaped. They are smaller than red wine glasses and have a smaller mouth. The reduced surface area of contact with the wine prevents the white wine of warming up too fast and in reduces the rate of oxidization for a crisp, clean flavor.

White wines glasses should hold 10 to 12 ounces.

Fun Fact!**White wines which are best served slightly oxidized are generally full flavored wines, such as oaked chardonnay. For lighter, fresher styles of white wine, oxidization is less desirable as it is seen to mask the delicate nuances of the wine.

Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wine glasses are small and flute shaped (tall and thin). The reduced surface area of contact keeps the wine colder and the flute shape allows for the proper development of bubbles.

Glasses for sparkling wines should hold 8 to 12 ounce capacity.

Fun Fact!**The glass is designed to be held by the stem to help prevent the heat from the hand from warming the champagne.